New member/owner Jacksonville FL

[liljosh344]

Hello mafia,

I have been searching a few weeks now for a daily driver to supplement my 2004 Ford F150. The 100 mile round trip commute I make from Jacksonville to Kings Bay, GA each day is killing me on gas. It finally hit me that the money I would save on gas with a more fuel efficient car would net me a large chunk of a car payment. I finally settled on a 2005 BMW 330i ZHP.

The first car I ever bought was purchased in Michigan near my hometown. I grew up in a family that nearly exclusively drove SAABs. So it was only natural that I ended up with a 2002 SAAB Viggen. From 1999 to 2002 SAAB built about 4600 Viggens and mine was one of 71 coupes imported to the US in 2002. I bought the car used in 2006 with nearly 15000 miles at less than half the original MSRP. A steal! I loved the car. SAAB only made them with manual transmissions and it was designed to be an enthusiast car. It was with me until 2008 when we had an unfortunate run in with a Chrysler 300M that left the car unrecoverable.

I made the switch to an F150 since I was moving to a different state every year. I recently bought a wakeboarding boat and now I can't sacrifice the trucks towing capability. But I can't deny the extremely poor gas mileage. When I was working in Virginia I was introduced to the ZHP by a fella I worked with who is pretty active on this site. It always struck me as an interesting car due to its enthusiast roots. I settled on the ZHP for 3 reasons:
- Rarity/enthusiast appeal
- Gas mileage
- Availability as a sedan

I think me and the ZHP are a perfect match. Ill find out soon since I will be spending the rest of the weekend with a new to me ZHP from Pittsburgh. I fly out tomorrow morning and spend the weekend driving back to FL with a brief stop in Norfolk to see my girlfriend. Im excited to say the least. I love working on my cars and do nearly all maintenance myself. I have found this forum to be an invaluable resource for learning about the ZHP and hope I can someday contribute as well. I feel fortunate to be a new member of this community!

Ill post some pics tomorrow when I pick up the car and start the journey south!

Josh

[Hermes]

Congratulations Josh, hope you have a great time with your car. Any details on it (color, leather/alcantara, etc.)?

[brettbimmer]

Have a fun road trip back to FLA in the ZHP! :thumbsup

[Johnmadd]

Welcome to the mafia. In for pics.

[Mtnman]

Details please! And are u stopping at danes house when ur in norfolk? Not far away....
Congrats on the new whip.

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[kayger12]

Welcome to the Family.

Glad to have you.

Droid X. Tapatalk. Use it.

[danewilson77]

Good to see you post Josh and congrats on the ZHP. You won't be disappointed.

Guys here are pic and detail whores so let it flow when you can.

You should stop by on your way down. Take a breather and I'll take some pics.

HTC Thunderbolt+TT

[Marcus-SanDiego]

Welcome, Josh.

[static667]

Welcome to the family, Josh! Most definitely stop by Dane's place while in VA. There will be a few mafiosos there on Saturday, if that's the day you will be passing through.

[johnrando]

Welcome to the family, and congrats on the car. More details? Color, stick, etc?

[liljosh344]

Yes details... where are my manners...

2005 330i ZHP
Black exterior (looks metallic but I think there are two blacks)
Black leather interior/aluminum cube
6MT
72k miles
Cold weather package

More to follow... gotta board my connecting flight to Tampa!?

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[danewilson77]

Sounds perfect. So....you will have the black interior with Silver Cube trim? That's gonna look awesome.

I believe there is Jerez Black and Black Diamond Metallic.

Be sure to register it here....

http://www.zhpregistry.net/



And you can find a ton of data here...

http://www.zhpregistry.net/Stats.aspx

And you can find out how many cars have been registered, like yours......here

http://www.zhpregistry.net/Query.aspx

[M3TA5IN]

Welcome to the mafia. Great idea to go with a zhp!

[echo46]

Awesome, enjoy your virgin voyage. You will always remember the first crank of the that incredible in line six.

[WOLFN8TR]

Welcome Josh!

It's funny you are buying a ZHP for the same reasons I did. It's funny thou I didn't even realize I had a ZHP until I stumble across this site. You will not be disappointed. I absolutely love driving my ZHP! I drive it to work everyday, it makes the drive sooo much better!

[Marcus-SanDiego]

Yes details... where are my manners...

2005 330i ZHP
Black exterior (looks metallic but I think there are two blacks)
Black leather interior/aluminum cube
6MT
72k miles
Cold weather package

More to follow... gotta board my connecting flight to Tampa!?

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

Sounds like black sapphire metallic.

[M3TA5IN]

sounds like black sapphire metallic.

bsm ftmfw!!!! :)

[mimalmo]

Welcome

[johnrando]

Re: Black. There was discussion on this somewhere on this site. 3 E46 non-M blacks: Jerez Black (kind of a purple black), Saphire Black (more metallic black), and Jet Black - pure black (the best black!) (That's a running joke). BTW, when you post your pics, please post some in the Black ZHP thread in the Photo Gallery section.

[Hornung418]

Welcome to the family, Josh!

[danewilson77]

Re: Black. There was discussion on this somewhere on this site. 3 E46 non-M blacks: Jerez Black (kind of a purple black), Saphire Black (more metallic black), and Jet Black - pure black (the best black!) (That's a running joke). BTW, when you post your pics, please post some in the Black ZHP thread in the Photo Gallery section.

Ahh....thanks.

Signed, Imola Member

[ranger]

Congrats! I bought a ZHP for my daily driver. too. Makes the commute fun - 25 mpg in Atlanta traffic.

[Pip]

Congrats! I bought a ZHP for my daily driver. too. Makes the commute fun - 25 mpg in Atlanta traffic.

That's pretty great gas mileage for traffic :)

Congrats on the buy and have fun on the drive it should be a blast!

[Hermes]

The easy way to figure out the color is look at the tag on your driver side strut tower

[Ryans323i]

Welcome to the family. You're gonna love your work commute now!

Have a safe trip back from the 'burg.

And, of course, pictures please!

[Mtnman]

Updates on the first drive? Stat!

[liljosh344]

Made it to VA! Pics in the morning when I get to williamsburg...

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[danewilson77]

Are you stopping by?

[liljosh344]

Well I picked up the car yesterday around noon. It only took two trips to AAA to get everything together so that I could get an in-transit plate to drive the car back to FL. It still took around 4 hours but Ive been through worse private party sales before. I didn't have a chance to snap any pics since I had to hit the road but here are a few more details and pics the PO sent me...

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7148/6489179747_74b10c683e.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/69159324@N05/6489179747/)

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7014/6489179949_b11110bb8c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/69159324@N05/6489179949/)

The previous owner gave me a copy of the vehicle data report that can be printed at BMW dealerships so I know that the color is black sapphire metallic

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7159/6489063573_00e8c57e29.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/69159324@N05/6489063573/)

The owner added a few items modifications:
UUC RK7 shift knob
"M" style pedals
Smoke front lens and side markers
Clutch delay valve delete
McGuard wheel locks
Set of 17" 5 spoke wheels with bridgestone blizzaks
BMW winter mats
Custom berber "ZHP" mats

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7014/6489180203_97f35d3642.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/69159324@N05/6489180203/)

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7026/6489180259_38c9dda4d2.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/69159324@N05/6489180259/)

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7154/6489064003_33bac183c1.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/69159324@N05/6489064003/)

The engine by looks untouched modification wise... but more discussion on planned maintenance to follow...

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7028/6489063697_013d8d1bc2.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/69159324@N05/6489063697/)

Ill try to get some better pics soon

[Marcus-SanDiego]

^^ congrats.

[danewilson77]

Great seeing today Josh. Just now settling down from the maintenance day from hell.

Very nice meeting your gf as well. Seems like you two have a great thing going.

Thanks for the updated pics. Good seeing you in a zhp.

HTC Thunderbolt+TT

[WOLFN8TR]

NICE! :thumbup

[Ryans323i]

Great looking Ride Josh!

[johnrando]

Looks good. Really like the custom mats with "zhp" on them.

[Hermes]

great looking car Josh. I don't know if you still have that shifter in the car/interested/anybody told you while you were at Dane's but the ZHP weighted shifter is on sale right now for $60 @ Tischer (http://www.trademotion.com/partlocator/index.cfm?action=MorePartInfo&PartID=876675&siteid=214672&catalogid=4462) (might even be cheaper other places)

http://www.trademotion.com/sfimages/214336/partImages/4462/SFPLImage132745.jpg

[liljosh344]

Great seeing today Josh. Just now settling down from the maintenance day from hell.

Very nice meeting your gf as well. Seems like you two have a great thing going.

Thanks for the updated pics. Good seeing you in a zhp.

HTC Thunderbolt+TT

Thanks for having us over.

Sorry again to hear about your car. If you need an extra hand ill be back in town this friday for the holidays and looking for stuff to keep me busy.

Hermes, the PO gave me the ZHP knob he took off. Im gonna give this uuc knob a spin for a couple weeks then swap and see what I prefer. I kinda dig the metal look for now though in the morning this sucker is cold!

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[Hermes]

Sounds like time to invest in a set of leather driving gloves

[Newjack]

Good seeing you the other day at Dane's place Josh. You really lucked out with that purchase! Great looking car. :thumbsup

[static667]

It was cool meeting you yesterday, Josh. I had a solid metal knob in my e36, too. That sucker was cold to handle until you had been driving for a while. Then, it can get rather warm.

[SoarinZHP]

I like the metallic black! Nice find!

[jayjay_dee]

Nice car, welcome to the family Josh!